Analysis of the Nordic Model
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ANALYSIS OF THE NORDIC MODEL Study on the Nordic Council elaborated within the framework of the project ’Legal accessibility among the V4 countries’ funded by the Visegrad Fund 2018 Analysis of the nordic model Study on the Nordic Council elaborated within the framework of the project ’Legal accessibility among the V4 countries’ funded by the Visegrad Fund Project Partners: Central European Service for Cross-border Initiatives (HU) University of Szeged (HU) Central European Service for Cross-border Initiatives Carpathia (SK) Masaryk University Faculty of Science – Department of Geography (CZ) University of Warsaw – Centre for European Regional and Local Studies (PL) Authors: Dr Adam Giertl Jarmo Gombos Enikő Hüse-Nyerges Dominika Majerníková Gyula Ocskay Dr Edit Soós Katarzyna Wojnar 30 July 2018 2 Analysis of the nordic model Study on the Nordic Council elaborated within the framework of the project ’Legal accessibility among the V4 countries’ funded by the Visegrad Fund Table of Content Executive summary ............................................................................................................................................ 3 1. Introduction of the project and the research .......................................................................................... 6 2. Introduction of the Nordic Council ........................................................................................................... 8 2.1 The history of the Nordic Council ....................................................................................................... 8 2.2 The functioning of the Nordic Council ............................................................................................ 10 3. The Freedom of Movement Council (FMC) .......................................................................................... 17 3.1 Introduction of the Freedom of Movement Council .................................................................... 17 3.2 Obstacle management ........................................................................................................................ 19 3.2.1 Identification and reporting ....................................................................................................... 20 3.2.2 Coordination and documentation ........................................................................................... 30 3.2.3 Description of the database ...................................................................................................... 33 3.2.4 Prioritisation and elimination .................................................................................................... 36 3.2.5 Monitoring and annual reporting ............................................................................................ 42 3.3 Overall assessment of the elimination model .............................................................................. 44 3.3.1 Structure of cross-border obstacles......................................................................................... 44 3.3.2 Success stories of the elimination model ............................................................................... 49 3.3.3 Number and topics eliminated so far – list and typology ................................................. 49 3.4 The role of the FMC in public policy making ............................................................................... 56 4. Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................. 58 5. Annexes ......................................................................................................................................................... 60 6. Study tour report ........................................................................................................................................ 65 7. Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................. 68 2 Analysis of the nordic model Study on the Nordic Council elaborated within the framework of the project ’Legal accessibility among the V4 countries’ funded by the Visegrad Fund Executive summary The study aims at analysing the model of the Nordic Council launched in 2014 with a purpose of permanently tackling legal and administrative obstacles in the nordic countries. The document aims to give an overview on the structure, the operation, the procedures and the means of communication of the Freedom of Movement Council of the Nordic Council of Ministers in order to draft a proposal on an obstacle management system within the so-called Visegrad region. Based on the lessons learnt at a study tour to Copenhagen and Malmö to the actors of the obstacle management procedure within the Nordic Council; and a desk research, the study presents the Nordic Council (the „parliament” of the nordic states), the Nordic Council of Ministers (the „Commission”) and the Freedom of Movement Council, the organ responsible for enhancing border permeability and facilitating the mobility of the people among the member countries including its set-up, structure and the procedures of elimination of the obstacles. The Nordic Council, the inter-parliamentary consultative council was initiated in 1952 by Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden with the aim of cooperating in fields where working together is more beneficial than pursuing things alone. Finland joined the initiative in 1955. Besides the five states, further members of the cooperation are three autonomous provinces: Greenland, Faroe Islands and Åland Islands. The related intergovernmental institution, the Nordic Council of Ministers was set up in 1971. The NCM has permanent and ad-hoc councils out of which one is responsible for the nordic cooperation (Ministers for Nordic Co-operation, MR-SAM). The Freedom of Movement Council operates within the framework of this organ since 2014 based on the Declaration by the Nordic prime ministers on the work against border barriers concluded on 29 October 2013. The council’s main missions are the breaking-down of existing border obstacles, the prevention of new border obstacles to occur and the enhancement and improvement of information services to citizens and companies. The FMC’s competences consist of gathering and analysing border obstacles, and drafting proposals on the elimination thereof. The council monitors the steps and achievements made by the member states. The procedure includes the stages of identification and reporting; analysis and registration; prioritisation and elimination. The obstacles are identified and reported by the local and regional partners of the council, including the local information offices of the so-called Hello Norden network operating at each member states, the so-called regional committees which 3 Analysis of the nordic model Study on the Nordic Council elaborated within the framework of the project ’Legal accessibility among the V4 countries’ funded by the Visegrad Fund are cross-border structures; and some professional organisations involved in cross-border activities. The identified and reported obstacles are first analysed by the Secretariat of the Freedom of Movement Council. The analytical procedure contains four steps according to an internal checklist. The redacted and standardised version of the description of the obstacles is registered in the Freedom of Movement database. Then the obstacles are prioritised by the FMC in a way that priority is given to the topics of labour market, social security, business community and education. At the very beginning, the aim was to eliminate 5 to 10 obstacles per year, the mandate for the period of 2018-2021 envisages 8 to 12 obstacles to abolish on a yearly basis. The elimination of the registered obstacles is implemented according to the prioritisation made by the council. On the one hand, the Secretariat informs the relevant ministries about the problem and suggests a solution if the stakeholders during the identification process drafted any. On the other hand, the members of the council organise preparatory meetings at national level involving the officials of the ministries affected. The decisions on elimination and the relevant amendments of the legislations are made at national level, at the ministries involved. The FMC follows and evaluates the steps taken by national governments. In mid-2018 there have been 100 obstacles registered in the database out of which 34% were already solved, 54% remained unsolved and 12% of the obstacles were dismissed. All nordic countries together have been affected 376 times by all of 100 obstacles. The most affected nordic country is Sweden with 79 obstacles, then comes Norway, Finland and Denmark with around 50, and more isolated locations like Iceland, Åland Islands, Faroe Islands and Greenland are affected by fewer obstacles, which are mainly those ones affecting all 8 entities. It is therefore possible to generalise that the continental part of the nordic countries is to higher extent affected by bilateral and trilateral obstacles resulting from higher mobility and interaction across borders. In general, there are 34 obstacles that have already been solved since 2014 concerning labour market (29%) tax and finance (15%) and education (9%). Majority of them were those that were the easiest to fix, however 7 of the solved obstacles were of a more complex character and applied to